City, the current Premier League leaders, are the world's wealthiest club, but the refusal of Ivory Coast coach
Francois Zahoui to allow Yaya and Kolo Toure to delay their departure for preparations ahead of the African Nations Cup has seen Mancini arrive at a difficult circumstance.

The absence of the Toure brothers has been compounded by Gareth Barry's suspension and untimely injuries to Mario Balotelli, Owen Hargreaves and Samir Nasri. Mancini, meanwhile, has been left to lament the spending restrictions City have placed on him as title rivals Manchester United look to bounce back from their recent losses.

"If we don't have the players it's tough for us," said Mancini. "We are not United. We don't have 19 championships.

"United and Chelsea have won trophies for many years. So they are quiet. They
understand that they can play without pressure. For us it's different.

"This could be the first championship for many years and we need to do
everything we can to win it."

In order for City to gain the reinforcements Mancini would like, they must first sell a number of unwanted players, including Carlos Tevez who continues to be heavily linked with Serie A giants AC Milan and Inter.

"It's better that we sell first," Mancini said. "Maybe then we can then take
in other players.

"I said two months ago that we could have a big problem in January because we play four important league games, big games, without Yaya.

"If we have strikers injured then we need to buy another and at the moment I have only one striker [Sergio Aguero]. So I have one striker and only two [central] midfielders [James Milner and Nigel de Jong]. We are losing two players for a month and if we lose another we are going to need more players."

Mancini has raised the possibility of not being able to name a full complement of substitutes for Sunday's FA Cup third-round tie with Manchester United.